Moving On To Maturity (Hebrews 6:1-3)

Kootenai Church

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Turn your Bibles to the book of Hebrews to chapter 6. We're going to read together verses 1 through 6.

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Again, chapter 6, verses 1 through 6. Therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the

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Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washing and laying on of hands and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

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This we will do if God permits. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the

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Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the

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Son of God and put him to open shame. Let's pray together before we begin. Father, I do pray that you would instruct us in your word today.

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Give me clarity as I preach and explain these things. Give us all clarity as we hear your voice in the pages of Scripture.

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May your spirit be our teacher and your word our guide. We pray that you would instruct us in the truth and help us to think clearly about what is here and to avoid error and mistakes.

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And we pray that in all that is said and done and in our meditation before you, that you would be glorified and honored.

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We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. We are starting the sixth chapter of Hebrews today, and that means that we are entering into some pretty contentious territory.

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I mentioned this some weeks ago when I gave an overview and an introduction to this third warning passage, that of all the warning passages in Hebrews, and there are five of them, that this third one, beginning in chapter 5, verse 11 and going through the end of chapter 6, verse 12, is by far the most well -known one because it is the battleground in the theological discussion as to whether or not you can lose your salvation.

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Between those who believe you can lose your salvation and those who do not believe that you can lose your salvation.

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Or stated differently, those who believe you can lose your salvation and those who believe that you are safe and secure in Jesus Christ because of the work that he has done.

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And those are the two camps. Now that is something of an oversimplification, but it is accurate. It is accurate in the sense that there are only two options.

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Either you can lose your salvation or you cannot. It's either impossible or possible. The answer to that question is either yes or no.

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There's no middle ground. There's no third option. There's no quasi option that is some blending of the two.

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Is it possible for one who has been saved and redeemed to lose the salvation that they have? Or is it impossible for one who has been saved and redeemed to lose their salvation?

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Those are the two options. So that is a simplification and it is an accurate one, but it is an oversimplification in this sense that even in those two camps, there are people in both of those groups who would disagree about some of the various aspects of this passage.

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So among those who believe that you can lose your salvation, they would differ on their take on some of the details of this passage.

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What these things refer to, the repentance from dead works and the faith toward God and the washings, etc. And who it is that is being discussed.

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They would differ on those though. They would all agree with that conclusion that this passage teaches you can lose your salvation.

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And the same would be said of those who are in our camp who believe you cannot lose your salvation. And just in case

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I've been unclear about this, I believe that you cannot lose your salvation. Right? That's where I'm at.

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That would be my camp. And even within my camp or our camp, you're going to have people who would work through the details of this passage and come to different conclusions regarding some of the things that are addressed here, though they would all agree ultimately with that understanding, that conclusion.

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Spurgeon gave a helpful analogy and he described the theological battle this way when he writes, There are some spots in Europe that have been the scenes of frequent warfare, as for instance, the kingdom of Belgium, which might be called the battlefield of Europe.

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War has raged over the whole of Europe, but in some unhappy spots, battle after battle has been fought.

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So there is scarce a passage of scripture that has not been disputed between the enemies of truth and the upholders of it.

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But this passage with one or two others has been the special subject of attack. This is one of the texts that have been trodden under the feet of controversy.

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There are opinions upon it as adverse as the polls, some asserting that it means one thing and some declaring that it means another and all of that, close quote, and all of that is just to say that the passage that we are studying is not an easy one.

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The bullseye of the controversy is in verses four to six. Who is that describing?

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Just look at it for a moment. As he's describing there, those who have received these various blessings and yet have fallen away.

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The heart of the battle is there. Now we're not dealing with verses four to six today. We've got to build a little bit of groundwork, lay a little bit of groundwork.

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We're just dealing with verses one and two and three this morning and next week as well. But as we are in verses one through three, we are close enough to the battle, borrowing

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Spurgeon's analogy, we're close enough to the battle that in these verses, we can hear the ordinance in the background.

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We can smell the smoke and we can feel the earth tremble beneath our feet from time to time. Because the closer we get to the front line of the battle, verses four to six, the more all of these issues of who is being discussed and what is being described, et cetera, come up.

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And so we're going to lay the little bit of groundwork in verses one to three this morning. Here are some of the questions that need to be addressed.

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Now, I want you to allow your eyes to just kind of linger over verses one to three, catch some of these things, and I'll read to you the questions that are the key questions in our text this morning.

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And here they are. What is meant by the word leave in verse one? What does it mean to leave these elementary truths?

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What are these elementary teachings? Are they something named in the passage or something that is assumed between the writer and the readers?

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What is this maturity that he is describing? What is the foundation that is described in verse one?

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Is he speaking to believers or to unbelievers? Is he speaking to unbelieving

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Jews trying to convert them from Judaism to Christianity, or is he speaking to immature believers trying to move them on to maturity?

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Who does he have in mind there? Or does the author even intentionally distinguish between those two categories of people?

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Maybe he is speaking to all of those altogether, and that is his intended audience. What do the six things that are listed in verses one to two describe?

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What is repentance from dead works and faith toward God? What is this instruction about washings and laying on of hands?

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What does that refer to? What does the resurrection and eternal judgment refer to?

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And what does the author have in mind, Old Testament realities or New Testament realities? Now, all of those are the questions for which various answers have been offered over the course of time.

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And it is my unlucky task to try and walk through all of that and make it understandable and to present it to you.

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And I say that this is an unlucky task for this reason, because I know that many people in this congregation have sitting in your laps a

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MacArthur Study Bible, what I believe to be the best study Bible that money can buy. We have commended it from this pulpit.

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We give it away to our seniors. I have bought a copy for all of my kids. I have given this away to people as gifts.

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I still heartily commend it in every way. I still think it is one of the best study

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Bibles that money can buy. But there is a difference between my understanding of some of the details of this passage and John MacArthur's understanding of some of the details of this passage, a little bit.

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Now, ultimately, John MacArthur and I are going to come to the same conclusion, namely, that one who has been born again and saved by the regenerating power of the

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Holy Spirit and given new life in Christ, the elect one, cannot possibly lose their salvation.

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They are safe and secure, not because of the nature of human faith, not by virtue of their ability to hold fast, but simply and solely by virtue of the fact that Jesus Christ is their high priest.

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And he has done that work on their behalf, and he holds them securely. MacArthur and I will both arrive at that conclusion, though we are going to differ a little bit on the path through the details of this passage that will bring us to that conclusion.

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So it's just like two butchers may butcher the old milk cow in different ways, one starting at the back, one starting at the front.

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But even though they may butcher the milk cow differently, by the time you run all those parts through the grinder, all of the hamburger is going to taste the same.

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You're still going to have hamburger helper for dinner. So it is that John MacArthur and I are going to work our way through the details of this a little bit of a different fashion, but we're both going to arrive at the same conclusion.

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And now you're saying to yourself, I never thought I would hear Jim Osmond, John MacArthur, and hamburger helper all mention the same sermon analogy.

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And that is true, but here we are. It's disturbing and yet satisfying in some way, right?

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So I want you to be aware of that at the front because you're holding in your lap a MacArthur study Bible, okay?

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So I want you to know that there is a difference, and it's fair to say that there is that difference up front in case you're wondering as you're comparing what

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I'm about to say to some of the notes there, and especially over as not just this week, but even as significantly next week.

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And just as importantly, I want you to be aware that I am aware of that difference. You know why that's important?

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Because there might be a line of people all holding the MacArthur study Bible coming up to me after this session saying, excuse me, but I know

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I want you to be aware that I am aware of that difference. So hear me out. Think this through for yourself.

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Be Bereans. Analyze it. I'm going to tell you where it is that I might differ and why, but ultimately just breathe easy.

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We are going to come to the same conclusion, right? I'm not parting ways with that ultimately. All right, so now that I have said all of that, let's tiptoe through this minefield, or if you were in Sunday school, the picnic area, and see what we can make of this theological passage, okay?

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Notice the beginning of verse 1. We're just going to work through verses 1 to 2 this morning. Notice the beginning of verse 1 that he says, therefore, and that indicates to us that he still has in mind what he has been describing in the previous chapter.

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And this is another one of those illustrations where the chapter division is not all that helpful because it might tend to put a division in your mind.

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I think we've moved on to a different subject, and we haven't. He still has in mind the same subject that he introduced at the end of chapter 5, which is the maturity of these people.

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He is concerned because they had become lethargic in their response to the truth, and they had become dull of hearing and slow to respond to it.

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And so even though the truth was preached and heard by them, it did nothing or little to impact them, and they had regressed to the point where they were content with and had just begun to drink and eat spiritual milk.

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They had not moved on to solid food and to meat. And they should have by this time. By this time, many of them should have been teachers.

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They should have had a mastery of these basic Christian doctrines enough that they would be able to communicate them and teach others and be working through these things, discipling other people and growing other people up in them.

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But they themselves just sat and would listen to the milk, just give me the milk, nothing but milk, and didn't have any appetite for solid food at all.

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And this concerned the author of Hebrews. And so he mentioned, you'll notice in verse one, maturity, let us press on to maturity.

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And he mentions that up in chapter five, where he talks to them about the verse 13, everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant, but solid food is for the mature.

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So he still has in mind this distinction between the immature and the mature. And this is where part of the difference among those in our camp would be, some would say that the difference between immaturity and maturity is the difference between being unsaved in a clinging to the old covenant sacrificial system and the priesthood, as opposed to being mature and embracing fully

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Jesus Christ. And I think this is where I would differ with others in our camp. I would say that the immaturity and maturity describes here believers, that he has believers in view.

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And I'll make that case, I think, as we go through the passage. So having diagnosed the condition, they were dull of hearing, sluggish in their response to the truth.

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What does he say in verse one is the solution to their problem? Therefore, leaving the elementary principles teaching about Christ, let us press on to maturity.

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That is the solution to spiritual immaturity. Press on, go toward maturity, move toward maturity.

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We have this call in the passage to move toward being mature in our faith, in our understanding of truth.

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The solution to the dilemma that the author identifies is simply to press on toward maturity.

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That means you don't remain stagnant. You don't give excuses. You crucify and mortify your apathy and your indolence and your laziness in spiritual things.

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And you get up and you move forward. And that is a command that can, I think, only be given to believers and make any sense.

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And how is it that we press on toward this maturity? We must leave behind the elemental teachings. What does the word leave mean in that context?

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There are some who would argue that the word leave there means to cleave, to make a complete break with, to totally abandon, and to walk away from, to repudiate something.

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It can mean that, but the word leave has a wide semantic range. It has a lot of different meanings and all of which are determined by the context.

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So this word that's translated leave can mean to depart from something, to leave something in place, to leave something behind, to walk away from something, to move on from it.

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It's also translated forgive and forgave and forgiven in Scripture. Say, why is that?

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Because there is a separation between us and our sins when that forgiveness has taken place. There is a leaving and a walking away from it.

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It's also translated as divorce in Scripture in certain contexts. So there's a wide semantic range of meaning here in the word.

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It can mean to totally repudiate and walk away from something. It can also mean to simply leave something in place and to move on from that.

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In this context, I don't think it is referring to an abandonment of elementary principles, but to moving on from the elementary principles.

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In other words, the author is not saying, okay, now that you have learned the basics of the Christian faith, you need to dust your feet off, draw a line in the sand, abandon and repudiate all of that, and turn around and go on to something different.

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He's not suggesting that. He's not suggesting a repudiation of basic elementary Christian principles and teachings, but to move on from them.

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That is why I think the analogy that is used here of a foundation is a very helpful one. When you build a house, you pour a foundation, right?

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There comes a point when you're done with the foundation that you do what? Pour a foundation again? No. You don't tear it down and pour it all over again.

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You build up on that foundation, don't you? And what would you think if we built our house 20 years ago?

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What would you think if you came over to our house and you saw nothing, but still 20 years later, a foundation in the ground? And you said, this is your house?

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Yeah, we've been working on that for 20 years. And every once in a while, we pull out part of it, we re -pour that foundation, we're painting the foundation over here on this side, we're polishing the foundation over there on that corner, we're sort of decorating the foundation over here on this corner, but all of our work is on the foundation.

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What would you think of that? You'd think we were nuts. You'd say there's something wrong if you haven't moved on beyond the foundation.

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Now, moving on or leaving behind the foundation doesn't mean that I repudiate it and I destroy it, and then I just build a floor on top of bare ground.

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It means that you build upon the foundation. You move on from building a foundation at some point in your Christian life to building upon that foundation.

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See, today, 20 years after we poured our foundation, the foundation is just as important today as it was the day that we poured it.

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Just as important. It's still there. It undergirds. I live on that foundation every day of my life. We're there, we live on it, we build on it, we've raised our family right there on that foundation.

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We haven't repudiated it, but we have moved on in terms of building up on that foundation. So we are, if we are to move on to maturity, chapter 6, verse 1, we're to leave behind the elementary teachings about the

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Christ. Now, what are these elementary teachings? And here we reach a point of disagreement, a point of departure.

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There are some who would say that the elementary teachings refers to the aspects of the old covenant.

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So you remember some weeks ago, I mentioned that that term elementary refers to the elements that are the building blocks of other things.

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Like an alphabet is the building block of words. And basic math is the building block of more complex math, et cetera.

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There are a couple of different illustrations that I gave you. There are some who would say that the elementary teachings here refers to the building blocks of God's redemptive plan, which is the old covenant.

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So that would include the priesthood and the feasts and the festivals and the sacrifices and the tabernacle and the furniture of the tabernacle and all of the ceremonial laws that were associated with the religious worship of the people of Israel, that those were the elemental things.

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Those were the things which were pictures to point us to Jesus Christ. Now, I don't disagree with that, that all of those things were pictures and foreshadowings and types and symbols of the ultimate fuller reality, which is

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Christ. All that was looking forward to him. I wouldn't disagree with that. But I would say, I don't think that that is what he is describing here.

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So some would say that it is a reference to the old covenant and the things that are associated with the old covenant. And some would say that this is a reference to basic Christian truths or doctrines.

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Now, if you think it is a reference to the old covenant upon which the new covenant is built, then you're going to say that what the author is saying is you need to totally repudiate in every way all of your clinging to and reliance upon those aspects of the old covenant and embrace

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Jesus Christ fully. I would agree with that, that that is what one needs to do. You can't have one foot in the

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Aaronic covenant and one for the Aaronic priesthood and another foot over here in the Melchizedekian priesthood.

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You can't do that. And I think that that's the case that the author is trying to make. So I don't dispute that that is something true that we need to move on from that old covenant and trust solely and only in Jesus Christ walking away from that.

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But I don't think that that is what he is describing. Because if that is what he is describing, then that means that the concern of the author in this passage is evangelistic.

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That means that the author is trying to convert unbelieving Jews who are still in that old covenant to embrace

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Jesus Christ fully. But the analogy or the illustration of moving from immaturity to maturity does not fit well the analogy of moving from death to life or from the old covenant to the new covenant.

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So I believe that the foundational elements are the foundational elements of basic Christian truth, which results in our salvation.

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Namely, our understanding of who God is, who man is, what our problem is, and how we are reconciled to God.

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There are basic foundational and fundamental Christian truths that must be taught and are taught to brand new believers as they are coming out of darkness and into light.

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It's part of the gospel, contains some of those truths. And then as a new believer, we are taught some of those basic Christian truths.

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And I think that that is what is being described in these six things that I've mentioned in verses 1 to 2, the end of verses 1 and 2.

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The repentance from dead works, the faith toward God, instruction about washing, instruction about laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

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Those six things I think are basic foundational references to basic foundational

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Christian doctrines that one is taught early on in their Christian life. Now, I think that those truths are in those six things are intended to be understood in a

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Christian context, not an Old Testament covenant context. Because again, I think that there is an analogy here.

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He's concerned about moving from immaturity to maturity. And so therefore, I think that he has in mind here the difference between Christians, sorry, the difference between different types of Christians, mature and immature, and not the difference between a non -Christian and a

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Christian. And so it fits the analogy better to understand this as pertaining to basic Christian truths and not old covenant realities.

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It fits the analogy better because we're moving from milk to solid food. We're moving from immaturity and maturity. We're moving from one aspect or understanding of Christian doctrine, basic and elemental things onto a more complex and more robust and more theologically sound understanding of those basic Christian truths.

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And so if that is the case that he is describing here, Christian realities and Christian doctrines as fundamental truths, then it is

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Christians who are in view in verses 1 to 3. And I would point out that it is someone else who is in view in verses 4 through 6.

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Because in verse 4, you'll notice that he switches from us and we to those. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the and have been made partakers of the

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Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they crucified to themselves the

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Son of God and put Him to open shame. That is a different group of people than the ones addressed in verses 1 to 3 with let us, let us, in this case, we will do.

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He is describing a group of people to whom he belongs, namely Christians, though he's distinguishing between maturity levels in them in verses 1 to 3.

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But then beginning in verse 4, when he describes that passage that talks about people falling away from salvation, he has in mind an entirely different group of people that he refers to with an entirely different pronoun.

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And then you'll notice that down in verse 9, down in verse 9, he switches back. But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you.

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Now, do you see the flow of that passage? Verses 1 to 3, there is this group among whom he is,

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I believe that he is addressing Christians, dealing with the maturity issue. Verses 4 through 6, he is describing those and them and themselves and they, a different group of people, not

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Christians. And then in verse 9, he comes back to his audience. I'm convinced of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation.

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So he is switching from one group to another in this passage. So therefore, I think that verses 1 to 3 is describing

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Christians and Christian truths and realities. He has in mind here a believer whose growth and sanctification, let's try it again, mouth is really dry.

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He has in mind here believers for whose growth and maturity and sanctification is in view.

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That is who he has as his target. And these are the one mentioned in verses 1 to 2. And therefore, I think that these six elements that are mentioned in verses 1 to 2 are

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Christian truths. And I'm going to make that case next week when we look at those. So he does not,

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I want you to notice something about this, two things before we move on. He does not accommodate their spiritual immaturity. I mentioned this in the past, and I think this is key.

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And I think it's worth us reflecting upon time and time again. The writer to Hebrew observes their lack of maturity, observes their stuntedness, their lackadaisical approach to the truth, but he doesn't accommodate it.

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He doesn't say because you are immature, because you are unable to handle these things, therefore, I'm going to give you food on your level.

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He doesn't do that. Instead, he gives them solid food. He gives them the truth. And he does eventually move on to discuss

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Melchizedek, which he says in chapter 5, verse 11, he had to pause to do, to talk to them about this problem of their spiritual immaturity.

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They needed solid food, and he doesn't dumb any of this down for them. And I think that that is key, because we live in a context again, when we have entire churches and ministries that are geared toward dumbing everything down to the lowest possible denominator, common denominator, and thus eliminating any kind of distinction amongst

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Christians or any kind of special, oh thank you, any kind of special and significant doctrinal discussion amongst believers, all in the name of doing this for unity, and all in the name of reaching the lost.

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This is done. So there are churches and whole philosophy of ministries geared toward basically giving the blandest and simplest and most general approach to Christian doctrine possible, so as to not drive anybody away, so as to not divide anybody, so as to not make any conflict or discussion or anything like that.

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And that is the complete opposite of the approach of the entire New Testament, not just Hebrews, the entire

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New Testament. It presses us on to go deeper into maturity, further in, grow up, be mature, be discerning, get a handle on these things, be well equipped, well edified, well able to counsel one another.

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It is maturity we should be pursuing. So he identifies this lack of maturity in the listeners, and then he says we need to press on.

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What is the goal? Maturity. Go past these foundational things. Stop constantly polishing the foundation.

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Solid food is required for maturity. If you are in an immature environment, you can never become mature through that environment.

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You never can. That immature environment can never produce maturity in you.

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It doesn't have the ability to produce maturity in you. It is actually a positive hindrance to your spiritual progress in mature environments, where they don't discuss anything except for the most basic, foundational, and fundamental of Christian ideas.

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Such an environment is a positive hindrance to your spiritual progress. You can't progress in that, because the leaders themselves don't have the tools that are necessary to equip you in sound doctrine.

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They don't have the understanding necessary to equip us in sound doctrine. They can't move us on into maturity, because they themselves are not mature.

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There's not food there for it. There's not understanding there for it. So you cannot grow and mature as a Christian in an immature environment, because it actively militates against any progress in your spiritual faith or your walk with Christ.

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It incentivizes spiritual adolescence and spiritual infancy, and actually encourages that, because everything that is done is done for that purpose.

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And the author says you need to stop with the foundational elements and press on into maturity. Grow up and move on.

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And yet, spiritual leaders today, if you say, look, you need to move on, you need to get into maturity, they would stop and they'd say, hold on a second, wait a second.

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You're telling us to move on from the foundational stuff. But have you seen our stage? I mean, we got it all set up with a theme.

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Our theme is extreme Christianity. So we got a rock wall over here and a climbing wall outside and a bounce house out on the lawn, and we're doing an extreme fear thing out next

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Sunday, and we're going here. That's all part of our theme, our summer theme. Press on to maturity. Oh, no, we got the summer blockbuster series.

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We're doing a clip of Marvel movies. Every week is a new Marvel movie up here. We're going to go through like 14 of them and tell the story.

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We're going to exegete Marvel movies for the summer. Press on to maturity. Oh, no, it's basketball month at our church.

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So we have a basketball hoop set up on each side of the stage, and we got people coming in. We're going to show people. Our theme this summer is three pointers for Jesus or how to dunk for Jesus or dunking with Jesus or some other stupid, silly thing.

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And press on to maturity. You understand that those environments foster spiritual immaturity and excuse it and make people comfortable in it?

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You can't mature in that environment. And all they do is lay the foundation over and over again.

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And in such environments, I'll let you in on a little secret. Those environments are like that because the spiritual leaders in those environments are immature.

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That's the truth. They're spiritually immature. They've never been exposed to anything but milk.

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They never preach anything but milk. They never read anything but milk. They never give their people anything but milk.

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It's a steady diet of milk, and that's all they can produce in people is a hunger and a drive for milk and never solid food.

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They themselves are immature. They lack the maturity to be able to foster maturity in their people.

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And didn't Jesus say that a student, when he is fully trained, will be just like whom? The radio preacher? Their teacher.

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Right? A congregation can never rise above its leadership. It can't happen. It can never rise above its leadership because those environments can never create or foster spiritual maturity.

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It becomes a hindrance to your spiritual walk. I had a friend who remained anonymous because most of you know him.

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I was asking him, we were talking about the preaching in various churches. He spent like 10, 12 years of his life in one of these environments, these silly, immature environments.

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And I asked him to give me an assessment of the preaching and teaching in those environments. He said, well, for the first five years, you listen to the sermons and you think to yourself, wow, that's really good.

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I mean, that's incredible. I'm growing like a weed here. But after five years, you start to say to yourself, I've heard that sermon before.

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Yeah, I've heard that before. I've heard that one before. And then you start to say, yeah, even though I've heard that before and I'm not necessarily growing,

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I think that other people are probably growing from this. He said, right about year 10, you start to say not, I like that sermon and not,

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I've heard that sermon. But you start to say, I could preach that sermon. Why? Because that's the same sermon you heard 10 years ago.

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You can take churches that have been doing the seeker sensitive, silly center stuff for the last 30 years.

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And you can go back and listen to the first messages that they preached and guess what you're going to get? The same exact stuff that they're preaching today.

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It's the same thing. It's the same message over and over and over again.

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Such environments cannot produce spiritually mature Christians. Such environments cannot produce men and women who can lie on their death bed and be ready to meet the

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Savior and be ready to receive a saint's reward. Such environments cannot produce that.

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And you might wonder why, Jim, why are you always on about this? Well, I happen to be on about it because we're in Hebrews and it happens to address that.

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So yeah, I'm on about it. I'm on about other things. We're in one of the passages that are on about other things. Right now I'm on about this because this is a serious issue.

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Because what is at stake? The spiritual life and health and maturity and ability to handle life and face the tough realities of life.

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That is what is at stake in the hearts and the lives of people in churches all across our land. And most of it is given over to immature, childish, adolescent environments.

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It's truly tragic. And it is believers who suffer the most in those places. Now I'm off about that.

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I won't be on about that again. So what is this foundation? He says in verse two, we need to, or verse one, we need to not lay again this foundation.

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I think that this foundation is the six elements that are mentioned there at the end of verse one.

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And in verse two, we're to press on to maturity by not laying again a foundation. That seems to imply that somebody had laid this foundation with them, that these were people who had been taught these things at some point.

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Somebody had walked through the basics of the Christian life with them and got them to a certain point.

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And they, over time, had become slow of hearing and got back to regress to the point where they needed to be walked through those basic foundational elements all over again.

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And he is saying, we're not going to lay the foundation again. This is what you want. You want spiritual milk. I'm not going to go back and teach you the

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ABCs of the Christian faith all over again. We're moving on to something better. And what is the better that he's moving on to?

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The firmness and the security that we have in Jesus Christ, because he is our high priest, according to the order of Melchizedek.

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That is good, solid food that awaits us, awaits us in chapter six and seven, later in chapter six and all of verse seven.

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That's the meat and the solid food that we're going to get to. And he is telling them, this is what you need. Not again for me to lay those foundational elements.

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You need to move on to these greater truths, these greater doctrines, these more glorious aspects of the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

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And this we will do, he says in verse three. So the foundation is these six things listed in verses one and two.

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I'm going to read you these six things, and I'm just going to give a couple of observations on them here this morning, and then we're going to be done.

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I thought about handling the first two and dealing with those, but I really want to take all six of them together in one time together.

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So we're going to do that next week, but I want you to just observe a few things in preparing your hearts and minds for next week.

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So file this away in the back of your mind until we're together next Lord's day. These six things can be grouped into three sets of two, three sets of two.

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Notice that the first two go together, repentance and faith, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God.

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Repentance and faith kind of go together because they are the call of the gospel. Turn from your sin and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. So repentance and faith, they kind of go together.

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The second two, instruction about washings and laying on of hands, the washing and the laying on of hands seem to go together.

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However it is that you take those two things, whether you think that they're aspects of the old covenant or elements that are symbolic of the new, those two things seem to go together.

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And certainly the third grouping of two, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment go together. You notice that the resurrection of the dead has to do with the destiny of the righteous who will be raised in spiritual glorified bodies at the end of time and eternal destruction deals with the lost people who will suffer eternal judgment away from the presence of the

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Lord. So those two seem to go together. So we have repentance and faith, washings and laying on of hands and resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

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Those three kind of go together in three different groups of two there. There seems to be a natural progression through them.

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You have repentance and faith in the beginning that would indicate the beginning of your Christian life and your walk, the washings and the laying on of hands.

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I think we'll talk about what that is next week. That would describe things that deal with our sanctification. And then at the end of that is the resurrection and eternal judgment, which deals with the eschatological end of time realities for believers and unbelievers.

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So you have a chronological progression here of salvation and that which is at the end and that which pertains to the here and now.

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So there is a progression there logically and chronologically. And I think all of these cover the realities that we would expect a brand new believer to know.

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And this is all I'll say about them. These six, not all I'll say about them forever, but for today, it's all I'll say about them today.

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These six cover the realities that we would expect a brand new Christian believer to know. The nature of saving faith and repentance, the end of what they have to look forward to and the eternal judgment of the wicked and the instruction about the laying on of hands and washings.

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And we'll talk about what that is next week. But I do think it fits in with a Christian understanding of that these are foundational

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Christian teachings. But again, with that, we come to that second point of contention, which would distinguish me from that very good, excellent, highly commended

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Bible study that you have in your laps, the MacArthur Study Bible. John MacArthur would say that these six things have to do again with the old covenant.

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And I would say, I think that these six things have to do with Christian maturity, Christian living and Christian understanding.

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And so he would say that the old covenant is what is in mind here, an old covenant understanding of repentance and faith in God, an old covenant aspect of ceremonial washings and cleansing, and an old covenant and limited understanding of the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

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And then we are to move on from that to Christian teaching. I would say that I think that these six things all describe the basic elements, foundational elements of Christian doctrine to which we ought to be familiar, but they also lay a foundation for us from which we must move on and we have to move on into maturity.

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But we will handle those six things separately next time. So let's bow our heads in prayer. Father, we thank you that you have not left us in our sin.

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You have not left us ruined and undone, that you have saved us. And we thank you that the same

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Savior who saves us also sanctifies us by His truth and secures us everlastingly for your eternal kingdom.

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We thank you for the hope that we do have of the resurrection, which is to come. And we thank you for the solid hope that we have in Jesus Christ, our

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Lord and our Savior and our King. We thank you for the encouragement we have in your word. And I pray that it may be the true and living reality for every person here that we may be men and women who press on toward spiritual maturity, never laying again that foundation, but building a solid structure upon it, structure of faith and good works and good deeds, things that will glorify you everlastingly.

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We pray that you would work that work of maturity in us, that you might will that, that you might cause that to happen, that our hearts would press on toward that maturity, and that we would never be content with soft and silly and adolescent truth, levels of truth, but that we may desire fully the solid food and the good food that is your word and the depth that can be gleaned from it.

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Glorify yourself by stealing our hearts in these truths, we pray, in Christ's name. Amen.